Shields and Boris Blog on Elder Care, Health Care, and Caring in General

Elder Independence: Developing Your Own Personal Health Care Goals

As health care and the health care system grow increasingly--and sometimes frustratingly--complex, we are often faced with a welter of options for treatment and care that are, essentially, equally valid in the abstract. It is only when we overlay on these options our own health care goals that the most appropriate personalized course of treatment becomes clear.

This is acutely important as we age, or as we become responsible for loved ones who are aging. Whenever I discuss elder independence, the first question I ask is: How do you define independence (whether for yourself or for an aging parent)?

You can use personal goals as a blueprint for all aspects of health care. If you are given several treatment options for allergies, for example, determine your own goals. Maybe you're thinking: My allergies keep me up all night, and I can't function the next day. I need something that will help me sleep. Or maybe: I need to be my best at work, so I need treatment that will not make me drowsy.

"I have often thought about this question of goals and how handy it is," Susan said to me recently, almost a year after our initial conversation, "whether dealing with a medical situation or as a caregiver speaking for someone else. It may sound like a simple question, but it is a showstopper and it forces clarity on a situation."

Tips for Developing Personal Health Care Goals

• Identify small, achievable goals. As an obese diabetic with hypertension, Judith started with the goal of being able to walk 30 steps. As my colleague Gail Silver, Vice President of VNSNY's Long Term Home Health Care Program, says, "Small wins are oh so important."

   

• Think "emotional connection." My father's stroke rehabilitation focused on not objective milestones but an emotional tie with his dog.

   

   

• Engage your (or your loved one's) support system. For Susan, the supportive staff in her mother's assisted-living facility played a key role in her mother's comfort.

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